


Like you better

by blcwriter



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Established Relationship, M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 17:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4230150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blcwriter/pseuds/blcwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>   They'd done everything backwards, but Jim resolves to make their first date totally perfect.  Another submission for Team Jones' voting for Ship Wars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like you better

Author: blcwriter

Title: Like you better

Ship:  Kirk/McCoy   


Beta:  lackadaisy, hitlikehammers

Rating: PG-13

Warning:  language, mentions of past sex  


Disclaimer:  Not mine, and none of 'Fleet's many credits flow into my coffers.  
Summary:   They'd done everything backwards, but Jim resolves to make their first date totally perfect.  Another submission for Team Jones' voting for Ship Wars.  
  


\--  


  


They'd done everything backwards. That was Jim's life.  
  
They'd met hungover, the opposite of meet-cute.  
  
Then they'd gotten stuck as odd-couple roommates. Rumor cast Jim as the inveterate slob who couldn't spell _inveterate,_ either.  
  
Whatever. Bones knew the truth-- Jim kept them from getting demerits because Bones lived on near-moldy pizza. Jim loved Bones, the old grouch.  He didn't ask any questions, left him alone when he was moody, ignored when Jim stared at how Bones' hair flopped over his eyes and made Jim all-- _nnnnggghghh--_ when Bones studied.  


  


Gaila had said it the best.  "I believe the phrase is 'old married couple.'"   
  
Jim'd laughed, but it'd hurt because it was true, except for the part where Bones didn't want him 'til death did them part.  He knew Jim too well.  
  
But Bones had snuck Jim onto the _Enterprise_ \-- everything ran all together until Bones shouted "Jim!" as he ran into the transporter room.  Until then, a part of Jim curled in the back of his brain, saying "Bones didn't complain when Spock threw me off of the ship."   
  
Bones had looked _relieved_ \-- when he'd handed Pike over, Bones' hand clamped on Jim's for a second, clammy and shaking.  Bones' hands were always steady-- firm.  
  
They'd done the cliched, grief-stricken fuck once Bones patched him up-- it had been a surprise.  Bones made the first move, though "Oh, for fuck's sake, come _here_ ," wasn't much of a line, even for Jim.  
  
No-- their first date was going to be perfect.  He wasn't going to let Bones down ever, if he could help it.  
  
\--  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
"You accuse _me_ of being impatient.  Just enjoy the damned ride.  It'll be ten more minutes."  
  
Bones looked back out the window, bare arm on the ledge and a smile on his face.  Late July, California farm country, hills and fields dotted with trees-- it was lovely, all sorts of things blooming.  Pollen wafted into the car.  Jim's nose twitched a bit and he was glad all over again he'd taken double his antihistamines before they'd left their Academy quarters.  
  
_Their_ Academy quarters.  It was a shared officer's suite, the norm for newly-made officers.  That Bones' bed hadn't been slept in-- that Jim's laundry chute worked double-time-- some yeoman would notice.  People always had gossiped.  This time, it'd be true.   
  
Jim smiled like a fool.  Bones' hand on his knee squeezed just a bit.  
  
"You didn't say how you finagled no meetings."  
  
"Even Barnett rests on the seventh day."  
  
Bones snorted.  "I doubt it.  That asshole doesn't know the meaning of rest."  
  
"You just like threatening him with your hypospray."  
  
"Sue me.  Bastard wants to debrief you and Pike for six hours when you're _wounded_ while he sat here with his thumb up his _ass_ , I'll interrupt the meeting any way that I like," Bones snarled, the side of his jaw starting to twitch.   
  
Jim leant over to kiss it into submission.   
  
"Eyes on the road."  Jim laughed and kissed him again.   
  
"Jim," he half-smiled, half-muttered.  
  
"Bones."  He licked the salt from Bones' skin off his lips.  
  
"What?"  Bones stuck his head out the window when Jim turned off the road.  The unmarked, narrow lane was bordered by orchard, the sunlight dappled and dense.  
  
"Almost there," Jim said, then stopped the vehicle in a small clearing.  
  
Bones burst from the car and halfway down the alley of trees.  The dew hadn't yet burnt away, though the sun had climbed high enough for the fruit's skin to warm.  The air was saturated with the essence of peaches.  
  
Bones always went on about the trees in his Grandma's backyard under his room, how he used to like to sleep late and just inhale the smell.  
  
When he turned back, Bones' eyes were as wet and green as the leaves.  Jim wouldn't admit that under the direst of torture.   
  
"Thanks for sneaking me onto the ship," Jim offered, feeling a little tongue-tied.   
  
"Thanks for saving the planet," Bones replied.  "Sorry I..."  
  
Jim shut him up with a kiss.  Bones kissed back until Jim's knees started to wobble.  
  
"We're dysfunctional assholes who never explain.  It's why there're so many rumors," Jim said.  
  
"Rumor never said you were a sap."  
  
"You're the one who moons over Grandma's peach trees when you're drunk.  I only listen."  
  
Bones gave Jim a shove.  "Whatever.  That's maudlin, not sappy-romantic."  
  
Jim held up the bags he'd brought from the car.  "Romantic?  You were on me about meetings and getting outside and eating non-replicated food.  I'm following orders."  
  
Bones looked him over before taking a bag.  "Uh-hunh.  Don't try those innocent wiles out on me.  I don't put out on the first date."  
  
Jim only paused half a second.  "Did I ever tell you that it was love at first sight?  The way you were ranting while reeking of bourbon, all scruffy and rumpled?  I was hooked.  That flask on the shuttle was our _real_ first date."  
  
Bones laughed as he climbed into a tree.   Jim scrambled after him, sitting alongside as Bones contemplated the peaches on offer.  "Here,"  he said, pulling one off of its stem and inhaling the odor.  
  
He took a bite from the fruit in Bones' hand. The fuzz yielded under his teeth-- the spicy-sweet taste flooded his mouth, juice dribbling out of the corner.  Bones licked the juice from his face, licking turning into kissing, interspersed with more peach and even more kissing.  
  
"You like peaches, hunh?" Jim finally mumbled, sticky and kiss-drunk.  
  
"Like you better."  
  
Jim landed a kiss on Bones' nose.  "Like you better, too."  
  
"Better than what?  Apples?  Never thought you were a fan much of peaches."  
  
Jim shrugged.  "Apples.  Air.  _Enterprise_.  Whatever.  You choose."  
  
Bones shifted, his back to the trunk of the tree.  Jim took the invitation and re-settled himself.  
  
It wasn't the most comfortable perch, but surrounded by peaches and sunlight and Bones, who said "Sap, like you better, too," he let out a little sigh of relief.  Maybe he'd get this one right after all.


End file.
